Search The Bird

A little bird told me...

I'm a fairly newly wed, mostly sane person recently transplanted from beautiful Seattle to beautiful Central California. I'm addicted to food blogs, high thread count sheets, and most anything in earth-tones. I aspire to be a vegan marathon runner...but I think just between you and me, we know that ain't ever gonna happen...

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Celeriac Soup with Napa Cabbage and Bacon

'Twas the weekend after Thanksgiving and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a hobby-blogger in a tryptophan induced coma...

So, by now I'm sure you're all pretty much turkey-lurkeyed out. You've made turkey sandwiches, turkey hash, turkey pot pie, and some of you have probably attempted to feed it to the houseplants to get rid of it.

Just as a point of interest, knock it off.

That's going to stink in a couple days...

In an effort to continue using up your bounty of poultry, I present to you a distinctly un-turkey like application of turkey. I'm sure all of you good girls and boys used your super-duper cook powers after dinner and managed to break through the overindulgent haze from eating 2 lbs. of turkey, a mound of mashed potatoes you could have carved into Mount Rushmore and enough green bean casserole to power all the housewives of Indiana through Wal-Mart three times and saved the turkey bones from your weird house-coat wearing, dead cat smelling, hair curler bobbing aunt that you only see once a year and always tries to steal all the leftovers to feed to her eighteen cats (or you know, whoever) to make some delicious turkey stock - right? (I think that was the longest sentence in written history.)

RIGHT?

Good. Me too.

And bo-oy was it tasty. (Use your best Flava-Flav voice impression on that one.)

I tossed in a fennel top, the celery leaves from the celeriac, garlic, onion, carrots, and the typical spice accoutrement - and I was gifted with some seriously delightful turkey broth. And this celeriac soup is the bestest thing ever to use some of it up in.

If you're unfamiliar with it, celeriac is a type of celery that is grown for it's big ol' root instead of the yummy negative-calorie stalks.

It's got a texture similar to a turnip and the flavor is definitely of the celery variety, only not quite as pronounced. It's really quite delightful and a nice change of pace from your typical root vegetable. It's also really good as a puree to substitute for mashed potatoes. And, according to this article from NPR, a 1/2 cup contains only 30 calories and no fat. Not too shabby, eh?

No worries though, I'm about to ruin any nutritional value his puppy has by topping with some good old fashioned bacony-goodness.

Why, you ask?

Well, for one, everything tastes better with bacon.

And for two, if my weight loss goal is going to get thrown off track from the holiday season...so's yours.

Melt the butter in a soup pot and cook onions until softened. Add celeriac and cover, steam for ten minutes without disturbing. Remove lid, stir in potatoes and turkey stock and bring to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes and celeriac are tender. Either remove half the solids to a blender to puree and return to the pot, or use an immersion blender to blend about half of the solid vegetables.

Meanwhile, prepare the cabbage and bacon topping. Discard the outer leaves of the cabbage and roughly chop the rest of the head. Cook the bacon in a small frying pan until crispy, add the chopped cabbage and cook until tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add evaporated milk to soup, bring back up to a boil. Serve in heated bowls and top with cabbage and bacon mixture. Goes well with crusty bread for dipping.